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Impression – Kuroko no Basuke 2, Episode 01

Kuroko no Basuke really surprised me during the last season. What am I talking about? People that don’t watch sports anime liked it. Obviously, Kuroko no Basuke is a quality series, but being a sports anime doesn’t always help your case. A good portion of people won’t watch them. Having said that, even Bryan enjoyed Kuroko no Basuke. Production I.G has brought back one of the best sports series out there.

The english in this episode was really good.

Summary:

You should definitely watch the first season of this series if you plan on watching Kuroko no Basuke 2. I can’t tell you how to live your life, but it is the smart thing to do. This episode takes place after the inter-high tournament. The first years decided to take place in a street ball tournament because they haven’t been getting playtime during the regular games. They obviously aren’t capable of hanging with the big boys, but you need to play ball every once in a while. Kiyoshi accompanies the kiddies and they run into their old foes in Seihou. Unfortunately, they get taken out by some member from Yosen. What is special about them? They have a member of the generation of miracles and Kagami’s former rival. Meeting this rival sparks a very long flashback that takes place in America. That’s right, we get to see tone of people who aren’t Japanese. What is cool about that? They actually spoke english and had a diverse array of people. Black people who weren’t just racial stereotypes existed. They set up for the next episode that will feature a match between members of Yosen and Seiren. The crazy thing here is that the new generation of Miracles member is the center of the team. Anyone that knows basketball can tell you that you always build a team around a big man.

Only a few of those characters actually matter.

Characters:

I do not have enough time to talk to you about all of the characters. This is a sports series and that means we have members of various teams to deal with. The recurring cast is quite large and that means I will be going over stuff in groups for the most part. Also, this is a sequel and that means you should already know quite a bit about these people.

Tetsuya Kuroko

Kuroko is a very special character. He is a guard that uses the power of misdirection and smart passing to control the basketball court. His ability to not be noticed makes him the phantom member of the generation of miracles. His quiet nature aids in this aura, but don’t think that Kuroko is all passes and steals. He is adding to his repertoire and the guy is a great leader.

Taiga Kagami

Taiga is the power forward for Seiren. He spent most of his life in America and that means he eats big. That food is necessary fuel for a tall and athletic guy whose main skill is jumping strength. Taiga may not be a member of the generation of miracles, but he is definitely not afraid of challenging them. This headstrong attitude can be a double-edged sword unfortunately, but Kuroko is always there to cool him down.

Generation of Miracles

A group of extremely talented basketball players that were a part of an unstoppable run at Teikou Middle School. They are all first years at various high school programs and they drive their respective teams as stars. The group covers all of the major positions.

Aside from those key people, you have various players from the schools that Seiren plays. Even the coaches are fairly important. As far as this season is concerned, we should be introduced to the final two members of the generation of miracles. That will be pretty exciting.

He is beautiful.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I am ready for more good basketball. Lets just talk about the production quality for a minute. Even though the characters are doing things as complex as realistic basketball, they series doesn’t go to CGI like a lot of other anime. That is some time-consuming stuff and I appreciate the effort and price that comes along with it. Bryan brought up a good point when he talked about the sounds in the series. Making sure that all of the sound effects synch up properly with the pace of the games is very difficult. The production quality is simply top-notch in Kuroko no Basuke. Heck, after giving us Shingeki no Kyojin and Suisei no Gargantia, Production I.G must have given out enough money to bail out the United States government. The show itself is still good. I read the manga and I honestly think that the story quality doesn’t start to slide for quite a long time. For fellow readers that think I am wrong, I would like to point out that the realism is a big part of this series. You can’t just abandon it.

Look at those yaoi hands.

This episode itself was pretty nice. They are introducing one of my favorite characters in Atsushi and that makes me excited. Center play is stressed in this series and that is a good thing because that is how real basketball works. Teams don’t win championships without quality centers for the most part. You can’t teach height and you can’t coach speed. Some things just come down to God-given talent. When it comes to the flashback stuff, I loved what they did with it. Some of those english lines sounded like they were coming from actual english speakers. I really appreciated that and the fact that they had black characters that weren’t horrible stereotypes. If you say that having them play basketball is a stereotype, then you obviously didn’t see all of the white guys playing too. Also, this is some inner city street ball. Don’t tell me that putting in some black characters is racist. They are simply showing some of America. I will stress again that the realism in this series is a pretty big factor in its quality. We also got a glimpse of Kagami’s coach who will be a more important character shortly. I am really looking forward to more from this series.

I only watched Kuroko season 1 myself because I happened to pick up a vast majority of the spring anime. Seemed pretty highly rated so I was curious and gave it a watch, not thinking much of it. This is probably a very common line but I’m not much of a sports fan and don’t care much for basketball, yet found that I really loved this series. I wasn’t convinced right away, but around halfway through season 1 I was really captured by Kuroko and I was so glad to find out they’d make a season 2.

First episode was quite good, it was nice seeing some of Kagami’s backstory and getting more development from him. Looks like Murasakibara is finally gonna get some screen time so I’m curious about how the story will deal with him. All I’ve seen of him is random pictures and the little bit of him from the Tip Off episode (since I haven’t read the manga) so I can’t wait to see him in action.

Very true, I didn’t expect a whole lot from this series and ended up with an anime that was among my favorites of its season. Now I’m a lot more open to other sports anime/manga series, though I can’t say for sure if I’d enjoy them the same way I enjoyed Kuroko.